SECOND RUNOFF INAFGHANISTAN

AUM
WHO WILL RUN AFGHANISTAN NOW
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
Hamid Karzai should not discharge the duties of president of Afghanistan, say some constitutional experts. His term of office is over. For a second term,he is not qualified in the polling of votes in August 09. Although he had polled 54 percent but some boots had reported fraudulent polling and counting. When nearly one-third of the votes polled by Karzai were declared bogus, Karzai could not claim to succeed himself for a second term. Of course, he has complained that what was his legally has now been stolen away from him. But the UN backed election commission found enough evidence to discredit polling in several booths in the southern Afghanistan.
Who will govern Afghanistan now? There is a consensus building for a coalition and power sharing between the candidate who polled the highest number of votes on 20 August and the runners up. In other words Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah would jointly govern Afghanistan until a second run off in the spring of 2010. A second round of election for presidentship is not possible now as the winter sets in and heavy snowfall would block passage. In the war ravaged country an election before a thaw may prove to be a disaster.
One may recall that in the August 09 election the Taliban had killed some afghans who went to vote. In some cases fingers of those who had voted were cut off. In winter, the law and order will be hard to enforce. The constitutional experts say that hamid Karzai must not be allowed to continue as president as it would demoralise the opposition parties and weaken the fight against the Taliban terrorists. Therefore, an honourable solution in accordance with the will of people is to let Karzai and Abdullah share power and provide a clean government to people until Afghanistan goes to polls to elect a new president. The electoral battle would be fought between karzai and Abdullah and looking at the trends it can be safely surmised that Hamid karzai would receive 21 gun salute when he is sworn in as the President of Afghanistan for a second term.